Stemming the tide of HeLa cells

Max Planck cell biologists have challenged the scientific research community to replace one of the most entrenched tools of preclinical studies-the HeLa cell line-with stem cell lines.¹ The latter, they contend, more accurately reflect the underlying molecular complexity of healthy and diseased tissue, but technical and economic considerations may slow stem cells' adoption by the wider research community.

Stem cells have not been widely adopted as basic research tools because they are far more complex to grow and maintain than HeLa and many other cell lines. As a result, much of the translational research with stem cells has focused on their therapeutic applications, not on their use as in vitro screens and models...